Shimura curves in the Prym loci of ramified double covers

Abstract

We study Shimura curves of PEL type in the space of polarized abelian varieties [Formula: see text] generically contained in the ramified Prym locus. We generalize to ramified double covers, the construction done in [E. Colombo, P. Frediani, A. Ghigi and M. Penegini, Shimura curves in the Prym locus, Commun. Contemp. Math. 21(2) (2019) 1850009] in the unramified case and in the case of two ramification points. Namely, we construct families of double covers which are compatible with a fixed group action on the base curve. We only consider the case of one-dimensional families and where the quotient of the base curve by the group is [Formula: see text]. Using computer algebra we obtain 184 Shimura curves contained in the (ramified) Prym loci.